The Invention of the Jewish Peoplehttp://inventionofthejewishpeople.com
by Shlomo SandThu, 02 Sep 2010 20:53:55 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5INVENTION OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE out now in an affordable paperback editionhttp://inventionofthejewishpeople.com/2010/09/invention-of-the-jewish-people-out-now-as-affordable-paperback/
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Shlomo Sand’s intellectual bestseller is now available in an affordable paperback edition. Priced at US$16.95 and £9.99, this edition includes an all-new afterword in which Professor Sand responds to critics.

“Countering official Zionist historiography, Sand questions whether the Jewish People ever existed as a national group with a common origin in the Land of Israel/Palestine. He concludes that the Jews should be seen as a religious community comprising a mishmash of individuals and groups that had converted to the ancient monotheistic religion but do not have any historical right to establish an independent Jewish state in the Holy Land. In short, the Jewish People, according to Sand, are not really a “people” in the sense of having a common ethnic origin and national heritage. They certainly do not have a political claim over the territory that today constitutes Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem.”

In a new piece today, Dissident Voice writes “Shlomo Sand argued with meticulous scholarship in his earth-shattering book, The Invention of the Jewish People, that the claim that the Jews of today are the ethnic offspring of the biblical Jews is yet another Zionist myth…”

Deborah Nussbaum Cohen reviews Sand’s book for the Jewish Daily Forward in an article entitled “The Ties That Bind: As Scientists Explore the Genetic Links Between Jewish Populations, Rabbis and Thinkers Wrestle With the Question of What This Means for Jewish Identity.”

Reporting on the two recent Jewish population genetics studies, New York Times science writer Nicholas Wade went so far as to argue that their findings “refute the suggestion made last year by the historian Shlomo Sand in his book ‘The Invention of the Jewish People’ that Jews have no common origin but are a miscellany of people in Europe and Central Asia who converted to Judaism at various times.”

Sand, however, was dismissive of the significance of the new genetic research. “It is a pity and sad that a people have to prove that it is a people by genetics and not by a secular culture,” Sand wrote in an e-mail to the Forward. “The new ‘discoveries’ are not different from the old ones.”

While Sand, who is known for his far-left views, occupies the political margins, many more mainstream figures also believe that genetics should have no bearing on Jewish peoplehood. “It can point to some interesting data about Jewish marriage patterns and perhaps tell us something about historical patterns of Jewish settlement, but it doesn’t tell us anything about Jewish peoplehood,” said Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

Socialist, yes, we are living at the start of the 21st century, plunged into a huge and classic crisis of capitalism. Not only this, capitalism is very close to destroying our planet. I have, though, a problem with the description “Marxist”. I call myself a “historical materialist” and I am very clear about this in my book, The Invention of the Jewish People. But to call myself a Marxist means I believe in the power of the proletariat, that the proletariat can take power, and I do not believe this.

Shlomo Sand’s book is reviewed by David Finkel in Against the Current 146 (May/June 2010):

As a preface to engaging with Sand’s fascinating text and with the controversies it has inevitably generated, let’s imagine for a moment that the arguments over the rights to the lands of Palestine/Israel were conducted on a rational modernist basis — that is, by relying on the notions of basic rights of human beings that have arisen since the Enlightenment, not on myths that God chooses to favor some people and nations over others.

]]>http://inventionofthejewishpeople.com/2010/07/816/feed/115Guardian reviews Shlomo Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People – OUT NOW in paperbackhttp://inventionofthejewishpeople.com/2010/07/guardian-reviews-shlomo-sand%e2%80%99s-the-invention-of-the-jewish-people-%e2%80%93-out-now-in-paperback-2/
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Ian Pindar reviewed the paperback edition of Shlomo Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People for The Guardian on Saturday 26th June. Full review below (not yet available online):

The idea of the Jews as a single people or race is a myth, a fi ction based on Old Testament “mythistory”, argues Shlomo Sand, a Jewish historian based at the University of Tel Aviv. It is also one of the founding assumptions of the state of Israel, and throughout this polemical, revisionist history Sand has Zionist ideology in his sights. (He is not anti-Israel, but he is “post-Zionist”.) In essence, his book undermines the moral right of the state of Israel to define itself as exclusively Jewish and how you respond to it will very much depend on your political views. Sand admits none of his findings is new and there are no revelations, but what he offers is a radical dismantling of a national myth. He can find no evidence of any Jewish exile, and without exile there can be no right to return. However, even if it is founded on a myth, the state of Israel exists. Sand wants it to abandon ethnic nationalism and to modernise and democratise, and as this controversial book was a bestseller in Israel, perhaps there is hope that some Israelis want this too.

A controversial book which argues that the idea of a Jewish people descended from the ancient Israelites is a Zionist myth, has been shortlisted for British Jewry’s main literary award…

…Alan Mendoza, director of the Israel-Diaspora Trust, said: “The cultural, historical and religious roots of the Jewish people are self-evident and Sands’ desire for self-immolation is not shared by Anglo-Jewry. Was this decision motivated by intellectual navel-gazing of the most banal kind, or does it reflect an attempt to appease those viscerally anti-Israel elements within the broader liberal intelligentsia? Either way, this is a pathetic attempt at gesture politics, and one that cheapens the Wingate Prize.”

The Invention of the Jewish People by Tel Aviv University Professor Shlomo Sand is one of four books up for the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize.

Once weekly, our renowned hosts Ken Livingstone and Derek Conway tackle the books with the big questions – in this compelling 30 minute book review show. We want to delve into the realities behind a recently published political book. With the insights of a distinguished panel of expert guests and a short video to highlight the topic at hand. Together they read between the lines and decide the merits of the book of the week.

Shlomo Sand clashes with Meyer Habib, Vice President of France’s Representative Council of Jewish Institutions (CRIF). Fréderic Taddai hosts Sand and Habib on the program Ce Soir ou Jamais; discussion available in French.